Advice sought on starting up a Shotokan/applied Karate class

I've recently moved to the West of Ireland- Kerry. I'm hoping to start a Shotokan club or two here- and don't want to reinvent the wheel. Can anyone- by any chance help me with advice on getting insurance and on a syllabus too.

Also am wandering about getting students to sign a code of conduct/ contract- so I can show time wasters the door etc.

I really like Iain Abernethy's bunkai approach and plan to make my Karate as real and as meaningful: in terms of self defence as I can. Therefore I want to avoid affiliation with the obvious big associations in Shotokan.

I'm only a Shodan, and have only taught a small amount of Karate before. Please, any advice would be very gratefully recieved.

I have not personally looked at insurance in Ireland, but that’s obviously very important to have. It may be worth contacting some of generic sports coaching bodies over there to see if there are courses you can do and hence insurance you can gain through that? I know of a few groups who have done that in other countries to ensure professionalism and insurance, but to also avoid the dictatorial nature of some karate groups and to retain a little independence.

I’d also advise looking to create some connections with groups and individuals who can help you develop personally. It’s important that instructors don’t find themselves at the “top of the tree” and with no means to progress their own training. It is certainly possible to maintain good standards, have solid technical input, have all the legal stuff in place and still maintain your independence. It just takes a little work. Hopefully there will be someone from Ireland on this board who can advise on the specifics?

Peter Consterdine and I are currently working to set up an international organisation for pragmatically minded traditional types like us and that may also be of interest. As soon as that is ready to roll out, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

Yeah, I've signed those. Probably worth it because it gives you the leverage to kick people out. My advice is to not show it to anyone until they've had a few classes.

As far as syllabus goes.... Do you want to teach a small amount of kata in great detail or go through all of them, you may not have time for both. What kind of sparring/live drilling do you want to do, will this require extra practice? If your teaching 'Shotokan Karate' you may need to expose your students to things like point sparring at the very least to make them portable. What are your goals as an instructor? Are you running an academy or a club?

In my experience, Andrew, it is best to start with what you know. My first question is what did the Shotokan school in which you earned your shodan include in its syllabus? What did you like about it? What didn't you like? I understand if you did not always agree with the angle that school took on karate practice. It may not have been pragmatically minded enough. However, that would likely be a good starting point when designing a syllabus.

Yeah, I've signed those. Probably worth it because it gives you the leverage to kick people out. My advice is to not show it to anyone until they've had a few classes.

As far as syllabus goes.... Do you want to teach a small amount of kata in great detail or go through all of them, you may not have time for both. What kind of sparring/live drilling do you want to do, will this require extra practice? If your teaching 'Shotokan Karate' you may need to expose your students to things like point sparring at the very least to make them portable. What are your goals as an instructor? Are you running an academy or a club?

You can teach whatever you want, so what is it you want to teach?

I would be very dubious to be honest of any club/school that only told me several weeks after I joined that it had an ethics/behaviour policy. I'm dubious about them at the best of times, I would always assume that people are going to be honest and not try to hurt people when training etc, if it's not going to be a place with a religious bent I wouldn't write an ethics policy. As the school/club owner you don't need written reasons why you show a student the door if they aren't suiting the class.

Signing contracts to pay monthly through the bank may not be something people want to do, paying monthly by cheque or cash is usually fine with people but signing contracts to pay I find many people don't like.

Kravate101, as you state that you want to start a Shotokan club you should focus on the Shotokan-syllabus. There are plenty to be found through a internet-search. (I'm not a Shotokan-stylist, but I have had a few PDF's with rather standard Shotokan syllabusses.) Most Shotokan schools use similar standards in regards to kata, ippon/sanbon/gohon-kumite, shiai etc. Just add your personal ideas and your students drives.
Personally I would, in regards to kata syllabus, would focus on those common kata like Naifanchi, Pinan, Kusanku an Passai, since those seem to have high transfer value. What I mean by that is, you are highly likely to come across those kata when attending seminars with other stylists. The style I study doesn't have the Pinan kata and very different Naifanchi, Kusanku and Passai then other styles (Takemura/Shukumine), so that makes discussing on those kata a bit tricky.

The national karate body, at least in the Netherlands, has a formal syllabus for at least yudansha levels, you could look in to those for your club aswell.

As for contracts, I don't get all the fuzz. I signed a yearly contract for € 200 (less than €4 / week) which I think isn't too much asked. If I for some reason want to quit the school I just have to write one month before the clubs financial year starts, which mean before the training season ends, before the summer holidays. I don't see what's wrong with such a contract.